11/21/1961 – 6/26/2025
Eudora
Penny Rae Harrell Eisenbarger, 63 of Eudora, Kansas, passed away following a short battle with cancer on June 26th, 2025, in her home in Grove Oklahoma. A memorial service celebrating her life will be held at 10:00 AM on Friday, July 18, 2025, at Warren-McElwain Mortuary-Eudora Chapel in Eudora Kansas.
Penny was born on November 21st, 1961, in Lawrence Kansas, daughter of Merlin and Patsy Eisenbarger. She graduated from Eudora High School in 1979. Penny married Mike Harrell of Lawrence on June 13th, 1984, and had two sons. While living in Kansas she worked for USD497 school district and later transitioned to the University of Kansas Bursar’s office.
Her professional contributions were as impressive as her personal ones. During her well-established career serving students with tuition accounts and financial aid applications, she discovered a loophole that prohibited some active National Guard service members from receiving financial aid for tuition. She took this challenge personally, and after 2 years of pleading her case with congress members and Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius, was able to get a bill passed resolving the issue.
Penny moved to Grove Oklahoma to care for her mother in 2012 and found peace in the small lake community. She worked for 7 years for the City of Grove, prior to her official retirement. What she cherished most was time with friends and family, particularly visits from her great nephew, Hudson, and her two sons Max and Brad.
Penny had a passion for plants and flowers, and she was always excited to share her garden with guests on her covered patio. She was an avid fan of her Kansas Jayhawks, particularly the men’s basketball team. Penny was smart, devoted, strong-willed, and had an endless capacity for love, always putting the needs of others before her own, especially when it came to her two children.
She is survived by her mother Patsy Eisenbarger, sister Pam, and her two sons Max and Brad Harrell, and his wife Alex.
Family suggests memorials to the Good Shepherd Hospice of Grove Oklahoma and may be sent in care of Warren-McElwain Mortuary.
Note: The Lawrence Times is offering Lawrence and Douglas County community members space to publish remembrances of loved ones who lived in this community, free of charge. These pieces are submitted by family and friends of the deceased and not written by our staff. Photos are also provided to the publication, and some may have been altered prior to submission. Read more obituaries here.
We are honored to be able to offer this service free to community members in mourning. We believe the last thing our neighbors need in those difficult moments is another financial matter to worry about. Please support the Times to help us continue providing this service — and news access — for all.
To submit an obituary to The Lawrence Times, please fill out the form at this link. We’re sorry, but we cannot accept obituary submissions via email or other means.
Receive obituaries via email
As of May 2026, we are launching a newsletter that will include obituaries only. Obituaries will no longer appear in our daily emails. You can sign up below to receive any and all of our emails. If you already receive our daily, weekly and/or occasional emails and you want to keep receiving them, please check those boxes as well.
Please make sure you click on the button that says “Yes, subscribe me to this list” in the email you receive or you will not receive future emails. That extra step is to protect you and make sure you’re not getting emails you don’t want.
